DITTMER, Mo. — Tucked away on 27 acres, about 45 minutes outside of St. Louis in Dittmer, Missouri, sits a place with a menagerie of farm animals.
"This is our covered arena as we call it and this is where the horses and donkeys live and where the cows winter," said Ellie Laks, founder of the Gentle Barn.
It's a place for animals that are broken both mentally and physically to rehabilitate.
"They needed extensive dentals and podiatry and were both emaciated and very, very thin," Laks said as she marvelled over the horses' transformation.
Laks says it is a place where the old, sick and scared come to find refuge.
As a little girl growing up in St. Louis, Laks always wanted to save and fix animals.
She started the first Gentle Barn location in her half-acre backyard in California 25 years ago. It's where her first rescue cow introduced her to something unexpected: cow hug therapy.
"I was kind of stressed out from the day and I went for kind of a hug, and she wrapped her neck around me and held me," Laks said.
Cow hug therapy is what The Gentle Barn is known for as well as how these cows helped introduce the unique practice to Missouri...in a roundabout, dramatic way.
"This is Chico he's the leader, so he crashed through three fences and led everyone to freedom," said Laks while petting Chico.
Seven years ago, Chico and five other cows escaped a St. Louis slaughterhouse and ran to freedom through the streets of St. Louis. The steers were captured, and their happy ending story led them here.
"When I met Chico for the first time, I just knew we had to help them and so we opened the Gentle Barn here in St. Louis for them," Laks said.
Although one of the cows was sick and didn't survive, they will always be known as The St. Louis Six. At 8 years old, the cows are still giving thanks... through hugs.
"These cows have suffered major trauma, betrayal, and heartache. They have found a way to forgive and trust and now they want to pay it forward to help others," Laks said.
Laks has written a new book, "Cow Hug Therapy," which chronicles what she has learned from the gentle giants.
"They are such a beautiful society," Laks said. "We have so much to learn from them if we could see them, love them instead of what we're doing to them."
One thing is for sure, we can all use a hug every now and then.
As for the St. Louis Six and the other animals, they've landed in a soft and gentle retirement home and are paying it forward in ways they cannot imagine.
"They're gonna graze, meditate and live the life that all animals should live," Laks said.